Monday, August 22, 2011

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2011) — The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. To make communications devices more reliable, Ohio State University researchers are finding ways to incorporate radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Swarmanoid swarm consists of three discrete types of robots: Foot-Bots can grab onto other robots and move horizontally. Hand-Bots have manipulators and a sweet magnetic grappling hook that lets them move vertically. And Eye-Bots can fly, perch on ceilings, and direct the movements of the Hand-Bots and Foot-Bots with their cameras.

We've been watching these swarm-bot modules evolve since 2009, and the following video (which won an award for best video at the 2011 Artificial Intelligence Conference last week) is the first that we've seen showing all of the bots seamlessly and autonomously cooperating to execute a task: